


Evolution of a Hybrid

by Twilight Fang (Asthenos)



Series: Falling into place [4]
Category: Invasion (TV)
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mpreg, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-08
Updated: 2016-11-07
Packaged: 2018-08-29 19:22:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8502331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asthenos/pseuds/Twilight%20Fang
Summary: Tom begins to act strangely and Russell tries to figure out what is wrong with him.  Nothing will be the same after Russell discovers the truth.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> There will be yet another sequel after this because the whole wedding fiasco needed its own private fic space. :D

April 29 th – that was the day that Russell had chosen as their wedding day. It fell on a Saturday so everyone who had been invited was free to attend the evening ceremony in the Glades that would begin around 6:30pm. Russell had calculated that it would take about an hour or so to set up, about fifteen minutes for everyone to settle down, and another thirty minutes or so to get through the ceremony itself. So Mariel and the kids would start getting things in place at around 5:30, but Russell and Tom could arrive at a few minutes before 6:30 to exchange their vows and the rings. The reason for the precise timing was that Russell was anticipating the sun setting at around 7:30 and wanted to do the picture taking with the romantic glow of the red sunset in the background.

 

Just thinking about such an emotionally overwhelming atmosphere made Tom feel both incredibly excited and extremely nervous at the same time. There was no doubt in his mind that he loved Russell and wanted to spend the rest of his life with him, but that didn’t mean that he suddenly felt comfortable with giving such a personal speech in front of a crowd of onlookers. The fact that they were only going to be family and personal friends made the idea even more terrifying. He’d rewritten his vows more times than his notebook had sheets of paper, having given up on typing it up on his laptop because it had felt too impersonal. What worried him was being outdone by Russell’s vows. Not because he felt the need to compete with the man he was soon to be married to, but because he wanted Russell to know just how deeply he cherished him.

 

_Why is it so hot in here?_

 

Tom was stopped at an intersection with both the driver’s side and passenger’s side windows rolled down, fanning himself with the very thin local Homestead newspaper that he’d picked up with his bottled water at the convenience store earlier that morning. It did nothing to cool the prickly heat that he felt moving in waves up his arms and down his back. And his brown uniform trousers were causing him to sweat in areas that were not appropriate for fanning in public. Not that it would have made much of a difference waving a flimsy newspaper comprised of four lousy pages at himself, with all four of those pages dedicated to the upcoming county fair.

 

Once the light had turned green, Tom drove through the intersection with one hand on the wheel, and the other on his crumpled up newspaper fan. It was ridiculously hot for the first week of April, and there wasn’t a thunderstorm in sight to blame for the rising humidity. The wet summer season was still a little over a month away so there really was no explanation for why Tom felt like he was driving a portable sauna into the… _Everglades National Park?_ Wasn’t he supposed to be heading up to old Farmer Bill’s livestock ranch to check on the condition of his perimeter fence? Nobody wanted anymore cattle wandering off in the middle of the night and ending up in the supermarket parking lot – alive and uncooked. The last time that had happened someone had started a protest against raising animals for human consumption. Although Tom enjoyed beef, especially if Russell cooked it for him, even he had felt mildly depressed when he’d been forced to help the farmer round up his cattle and get them back to where they would eventually be slaughtered.

 

Well, for whatever reason, he was inside the Glades now and it seemed to be a lot cooler than the streets due to its extensive tree coverage. Maybe he could just enjoy the shade for a while and check on the ranch a little later on.

 

Tom drove down the main path and then veered off onto a smaller, unmarked trail that Russell had introduced to him a while back. Visitors never made it this far out, and if they did, they were cautioned to turn around because of the unmaintained condition of this area of the Glades. There was nothing particularly interesting to see at the end of the trail, except for a small pond that Russell was forever throwing turtles into. Of course he didn’t literally _throw_ the shell-backed creatures into the water, he was just forever abandoning them to this paradise of strays and misfits for lack of a better option. At least there were no natural predators that would bother to wander this far east in the search for live turtle soup.

 

At the edge of the pond, Tom parked his sheriff’s cruiser and got out to stretch his legs. He leaned back against the side of the cruiser and uncapped his bottled water, thirstily drinking from it while closing his eyes against the glare of the midday sun. He swished the cool, sweet spring water around inside his hot mouth, before draining it down his throat in record speed, quenching whatever thirst had demanded he skip the coffee this morning in favor of simple H2O. Drinking bottled water wasn’t so strange in Homestead, the town that was always stocking up on it before a bad storm or a hurricane. What was strange was going through four bottles in two hours and still feeling thirsty. And hot.

 

But that big open pond sure looked cool. It was surrounded on all sides by full mangrove trees that provided shelter from the sun and perhaps offered adequate privacy for anyone who might be daring – or foolish – enough to try skinny dipping in it. Tom had seen Russell measuring its depths before so he knew that the center was deep enough to swim in, and the outer ring was about waist deep. He also knew that the water was uncontaminated and safe to stick your arms or feet into.

 

Before Tom could rationalize his thoughts, he was tossing the empty water bottle onto the passenger’s seat of his cruiser, his fingers deftly unbuttoning his dressed uniform shirt and then unbuckling his utility belt. He shrugged out of the shirt, bent down to unlace his shoes, toed them off, and then unceremoniously dropped his pants. His undergarments quickly followed, everything winding up in an untidy pile on the driver’s seat, where he also dropped his car keys. The only thing he could think of was how cool and refreshing the pond looked. How _welcoming_ it looked. As if the slight ripples on the surface of the water where lily pads and small aquatic plants floated were beckoning him to enter.

 

And Tom was still hot. Even standing in the middle of the Glades with the afternoon breeze whispering through his wavy blondish-brown hair, and grazing his naked flesh, he still felt like his core temperature was soaring several degrees higher than what he was normally used to.

 

 _Cool…_ Tom sighed in pleasure as he stepped into the pond, ankle deep, and just stood there for a moment, enjoying the sensation of the wet claylike mud between his toes. But then he took another step into the pond, and then another, and suddenly he was waist deep in the water and the sensation changed from soothing to highly erotic. Although the water was very brisk and comforting, Tom oddly noted that his internal body temperature seemed to be going up instead of down. However, while the heat that he’d experienced in the car had been uncomfortable and even unnatural, this new surge of heat was very pleasant in a mind-numbing, drowsy sort of way.

 

Thinking that he really didn’t need to go for lunch today, Tom decided to spend the next hour basking in the deliciously cool water of the pond that he scooped up into the palms of his hands and splashed onto his face, before bringing it to his lips to drink.

 

* * *

 

While most days in the Glades were uneventful for Russell, there were a few that ended in an altercation with a drunken visitor, or a scuffle with a wild animal. Those were the types of encounters that kept him on his toes and – although not the type of stimulus that he actively sought out – kept boredom at bay. Today looked like it would be one of those adventurous days.

 

Russell got back into the pickup truck that he’d left idling on the main path and put it back into drive, following the recent tire tracks that led to an area of the park that was unofficially off limits to guests. He didn’t often come down this way because it was too far off from the station that he’d been assigned to this season. By some odd stroke of luck, he’d decided to survey the area for storm damage and had happened upon the tire tracks as he was driving by. It looked like some idiot was looking to test his patience this afternoon, seeing as how this little detour was going to seriously screw up his lunch hour and give him a few pages of extra paperwork to fill out. Well, hopefully whoever had been brainless enough to venture this far out was either lost or just plain stupid, and not wasted or face down in the water. Because that would really… _Tom?_

 

The sheriff’s cruiser was impossible to miss, parked in front of the very narrow clearing in front of the pond. The driver’s side door was wide open, and when Russell got out to check the car itself, he found Tom’s uniform and everything that went along with it piled messily on the driver’s seat. He had even left his firearm unattended, along with the keys to the car, free for anyone to come around and steal or mess with.

 

 _What the hell?_ Immediately, Russell began to panic, turning away from the car to begin scanning the area for any signs of a struggle. Such careless behavior went against everything that made Tom the diligent and trustworthy sheriff that most regular folk respected and admired, Russell included. Tom would never just leave his gun lying around, out in plain sight for anyone to walk away with.

 

“Tom!” Russell shouted, about to remove the gun from its holster to use offensively if anyone had hurt his fiancé. “TOM!” And that’s when he heard the splash of water. Refocusing his attention on the pond, he opened his mouth in amazement to say something when he realized where Tom was and what he was doing. But he found himself oddly speechless, watching his fiancé surfacing near the center of the pond, his head thrown back in sheer joy, the water cascading from his soaked hair, down his smooth back, and disappearing around his slim waist. Russell had showered with Tom more than a handful of times, so he was familiar with how enticing the hybrid looked in the water, but this was not the same. This was something _else_ , something on a very damning level of art meets pornography. Tom had never looked more beautiful, or more deadly in his ability to get Russell’s heart racing and his libido supercharged.

 

Knowing that he should really go to the back of his truck to get Tom a towel and chase him out of the pond, Russell found himself rushing to join him instead. If Tom’s moral compass was acting up, Russell’s was already so far broken that nothing could have kept him – or his hands – off of his humanoid swan of a fiancé. He yanked his arms through the holes of his ranger shirt, throwing it, and his t-shirt, jeans, and underwear on top of Tom’s stuff, leaving his work boots beside the hybrid’s dressed shoes on the grass. He then rushed into the water, wading out to where Tom was _bathing_ himself under the shade of a healthy looking mangrove tree. Without any warning, he wrapped his arms around Tom and pulled the slender hybrid back against his chest, nuzzling his neck and kissing his cheek.

 

“That’s quite a show you were putting on for me, sweetheart,” Russell murmured, his intense arousal inspiring a new term of endearment for Tom that just sort of rolled off his tongue.

 

“Russell!” Tom said in surprise, so lost in his inexplicable behavior in the water that he hadn’t heard Russell come in after him.

 

“I hope that you weren’t expecting some other handsome man to rub up against your ass today,” Russell said sarcastically as he kept one arm around Tom’s waist, but let his other hand begin to stroke the hybrid’s tight buttocks from behind.

 

“Don’t be ludicrous,” Tom bit back, obviously offended by what Russell had just meant as a joke.

 

“Tom, relax, I would never accuse you of that,” Russell said soothingly, placating his fiancé with the gentle kisses that he pressed to his face and neck, moving down to his shoulder. “What are you doing in here anyway?”

 

“I was hot.”

 

“So you decided to take a swim in the pond?” Russell grinned, dropping his arm from Tom’s waist to brush it between the hybrid’s legs. “Did you get turned on before or after you came in here?” As it turned out Tom was just as hard as Russell and making no effort to hide it.

 

“It was probably around the time that you showed up,” Tom admitted, turning around so that he could press himself up against Russell. He wrapped his arms around Russell’s neck and gave him a sultry look with those lovely blue eyes of his that reeled the park ranger in deeper. “I get turned on whenever you exhibit just how strong you really are, Russ,” he whispered in a challenging tone that resulted in Russell getting even harder than he thought was possible.

 

“Is that right?” Russell returned the challenge, his throat suddenly feeling very dry and his stomach in knots. Giving Tom what he wanted, Russell gripped him by the waist to lift him halfway out of the water and into his arms, but was unprepared for the hybrid suddenly wrapping his legs around his waist. Struggling to maintain his balance in the water with the additional weight, Russell found his fiancé was breathing hard in his arms and squeezing his waist tightly with those long legs that were now locked behind his back.  “Tom, we can’t,” Russell protested, now fully aware of what it was that his fiancé wanted to do in the water. He was silenced by the passionate kiss that Tom instigated, being riled up enough to take control of it and kiss the hybrid with such longing and abandon that Tom was the one who ended up breathless after it. But there was something about kissing Tom today that was different from every other day. Wanting to pinpoint exactly what was different, Russell kissed Tom again, lazily stroking his tongue along Tom’s inside the hybrid’s mouth. Tom tasted sweet, almost like honey, but just a hint of it, tempting Russell to kiss him deeper in order to identify what that sweetness was. “Come back to the car,” Russell pleaded between kisses, holding onto Tom tightly and gazing into those beautiful, seductive blue eyes that seemed to be on fire on the inside.

 

“I want it here, Russ. _Now_ ,” Tom moaned, grinding his ass down against Russell’s rock-hard erection.

 

“We’re not doing it without lube,” Russell said firmly. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

 

“ _Please_ ,” Tom begged, delirious with the desire to be fucked right then and there in the middle of the pond. “I feel something… Something _wet_.”

 

“Yeah, it’s called water,” Russell said smartly, pressing the tip of his index finger against the rim of Tom’s entrance to humor him. _How…?_ Russell’s finger glided through a slippery gel that seemed to be coating the tight opening to Tom’s body. “Did you prepare yourself?” He asked in wonder, gently inserting his finger to hear Tom moan appreciatively and bear down on it. But if this was a lubricant it was unlike any that Russell had experimented with in the past. It was thicker than a lubricant and it did not wash away easily in the water. In fact, it appeared as if Tom’s body was secreting whatever it was in anticipation of being penetrated in that location. “Tom, what is this?” Russell asked in wonder as he sank another finger into Tom and let him adjust to the added thickness for a moment, still keeping his other arm around the hybrid’s waist to support him there.

 

“I don’t know.” And judging by Tom’s tone, he wasn’t particularly keen on finding out until Russell finished with him. “I just felt wet after you touched me.”

 

“You’re _really_ wet,” Russell said tightly, his throat dry and his cock so hard it was now hypersensitive. He had been with Tom for several months now but had never encountered anything like this before. They went through more lube in a month than was decent to advertise, so Russell had taken to stocking up on it whenever he visited the neighboring towns on an errand, just so the gossiping citizens of Homestead wouldn’t target their sex life as fodder for the local entertainment column. If Tom had exhibited this _self-lubricating_ biological function in the past, Russell definitely would have noticed. “Has this happened before?” He asked to be sure.

 

“No… never,” Tom replied, still appearing completely unconcerned by the bizarre way his body began to produce more of that lubricating gel as soon as Russell’s fingers swiped some of it away for inspection.

 

Russell looked at his fingers in disbelief, now entirely certain that the thick transparent gel that they were coated with could only serve one purpose – lubrication. If he wanted to make love to Tom right now in the middle of the pond, he could do so without worrying about hurting him. He wanted Tom so desperately that he doubted he could have held back even if his conscience had been made of sturdier morals. “We’re going to be so screwed if we get caught,” he murmured near Tom’s ear, before licking inside it, causing the hybrid to make a pleased whimpering sound. “You smell sweet,” he sighed, nuzzling Tom’s neck to lick him there, too. And he tasted sweet on Russell’s tongue. Nothing cloying, just the right level of honey-like warmth to pique Russell’s interest and get him licking for more. “Tom, I swear, you taste like honey,” he groaned. Or maybe honey wasn’t the right word, _nectar_ seemed to be closer to identifying the sweetness that Russell was lapping at with his tongue.

 

“ _Russ… please…_ ,” Tom begged, feeling neglected when Russell intentionally avoided touching him exactly where he needed it.

 

“Someone’s awfully wanton today,” Russell teased, his fingers returning to the slippery channel that he’d been saving for later.

 

“No,” Tom protested, clinging tighter to Russell’s neck and clamping his legs around Russell’s waist tight enough to leave bruises. “Just _fuck_ me,” he pleaded, indicating that he was not in the mood for anymore foreplay.

 

Tom rarely swore. He was too civilized and proper for it. So hearing him beg for it like that was all the convincing Russell needed to quit teasing and get on with it. Feeling a bit awkward holding Tom up with the one arm, Russell took hold of his erection with his other hand and guided the tip to where Tom was slippery and wet. Once he had breached the tight opening to Tom’s body, he returned to holding the hybrid close to him with both arms, using his hips to thrust up and into him deeper. Tom moaned low and shakily, his legs trembling, and his blunt fingernails digging into Russell’s shoulders.

 

“Fuck, you’re so _tight_ today… and _hot_ ,” Russell groaned, taking his sweet time grinding in deeper because that slippery heat felt so good on his skin, and the almost possessive way Tom clenched around him was like pure bliss. It took him a few short thrusts to hit that spot that wrung the most delicious whimpers out of Tom, but then he stopped moving. He was already so close that pulling out now would only make him come. Instead he took to grinding into that sensitive spot deep within Tom, the thought of just filling him with his seed causing him to salivate. “You like this, Tom? Hmm? Is _this_ what you wanted?” He asked pointedly as he ground in a bit harder.

 

“ _Yes_ … God, Russ, you’re so _hard_ ,” Tom moaned, rubbing his own aching erection against Russell’s stomach in the attempt to get off.

 

“And you’re so fucking sexy,” Russell praised, claiming Tom’s mouth in a devastatingly erotic kiss that brought his hybrid to the brink of ecstasy, and then let go. Tom gasped and squirmed in his arms, moaning helplessly as he came, Russell joining him as he gave into his orgasm next. “Damn it, Tom… you’re so _hot_.” Even as he released his essence deep within Tom, Russell felt the heat growing stronger, and the slippery channel becoming much tighter, milking him for all he was worth. It was almost more than he could take. The pleasure and his arousal was so intense he found himself reaching orgasm not once, but three times. Never in his life had he come so long, or so hard. And Tom endured it all with his moans and whimpers that escalated towards the end, his fingers clawing at Russell’s back as he cried out in rapturous delight.

 

“I love you, Russ,” Tom whispered breathlessly against Russell’s neck when they’d finished, completely wiped out and on the verge of falling back into the water.

 

“I know you do,” Russell said as he kissed Tom’s cheek affectionately. “I love you, too, sweetheart.” But when he tried to withdraw from Tom so that he could put the hybrid down, he found that the vise of heat that he was locked in would not let him. “Tom, do you think you could relax a little?” He coaxed awkwardly, holding Tom tighter when the hybrid sagged forward in his embrace. “Tom?”

 

“Tired,” Tom breathed against Russell’s shoulder where he was resting his head, seeming to be on the verge of falling asleep.

 

“I’ll bet, but you’re still pretty tense on the inside,” he grunted, still having no luck in freeing himself from the awfully peculiar grip Tom had on him. “Tom, relax,” he said gently, stroking his hand up and down the hybrid’s back until he felt him begin to loosen up. Very carefully, he pulled free and lowered Tom back into the water where he swayed on unsteady legs, looking like he might pass out at any second. “Tom, are you feeling okay?” He asked in concern, wrapping an arm around his fiancé and leading him slowly out of the water.

 

Once they were out of the water, Tom pulled away from Russell, sank down onto a lush patch of green grass, and curled up on it to sleep. “Tired,” he repeated sleepily, giving no indication that he realized he was still completely naked and in the middle of a public park. If they hadn’t been in a remote area that regularly went for months at a time without being accessed, Tom could be in danger of losing his job over such indecent behavior.

 

Suddenly Russell began to feel heavily responsible for what had just transpired in that pond. Was Tom sick? Should he have listened to his common sense and forced the hybrid out of the water before they’d gone and added it to one of the many outdoor locations that they’d made love in? Not knowing what else to do, Russell took the bundle of emergency blankets out of the flatbed of his truck and opened them up to cover Tom in them. He then sat by his fiancé’s head and began to stroke his hair, becoming a bit emotional over how trusting and vulnerable Tom looked lying there on the ground like that. “Maybe we should have Mariel look at you, just to make sure you’re not coming down with something,” he suggested worriedly, looking up every now and then to make sure that no one was going to intrude on Tom’s private naptime.

 

“I’m fine, Russ,” Tom said softly, his voice warm and light. He didn’t sound the least bit sick or disturbed. “I’m not hot anymore.”

 

“Is that the only reason why you went into the pond for a swim? You were hot?” And what did Tom mean when he said he was _hot_? The hybrid had felt extremely hot to Russell, but not in a location that Tom would have been able to identify.

 

“Hmm,” Tom sighed, then stopped responding as he drifted off to sleep.

 

Judging by the comfortable way Tom was lying there, with his features relaxed and content, Russell seriously doubted that the hybrid would be moving anytime soon. When the cool breeze had dried Russell’s skin sufficiently, he retrieved his clothes from Tom’s car and got dressed, then sat back down next to his fiancé to pass the next eighty minutes protectively watching over him in his peaceful slumber.


	2. Chapter 2

“Okay, everyone out,” Russell announced as he finished parking Tom’s new champagne-colored Mazda CX-5 at the far end of the supermarket parking lot. When Tom had first chosen the car, Russell had criticized the hybrid’s color choice, followed by the model itself. Thankfully they rarely had all three kids over at the same time, but if they ever did intend to, he’d let Tom know that the lack of space in the backseat was going to be a problem. And that had been _before_ the addition of a playful puppy to their family. But after the purchase had been made, Russell had grudgingly admitted that it was good on fuel consumption and ran pretty smoothly. So long as Kira and Jesse didn’t decide to hop in at the same time and squash Rose in the middle, they’d get along fine with the compact SUV.

 

Tom was the first one out of the vehicle, shutting the passenger’s side door behind him and then opening the rear door on his side to let Rose and Mocha out. Jesse and Kira were working on some term paper that was worth a huge chunk of their final grade, so they wouldn’t be visiting this weekend.

 

“Have you got a good grip on his leash, Rosie?” Tom asked as he affectionately patted Rose’s head.

 

Rose grimaced when the ever-growing puppy yanked forward, doing her best to keep both hands on the leather leash to prevent Mocha from getting run over in the parking lot. “I think so, Daddy-Tom. But he seems bigger and stronger than he was last week.”

 

“That’s because he probably is,” Tom said in amusement.

 

Russell slammed the driver’s side door shut, earning a startled glare from Tom, and pressed the button to activate the power door locks. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly as he acknowledged what he’d just done. He kept forgetting that he wasn’t allowed to treat Tom’s car like one of the company trucks that he was perfectly comfortable with running into the ground. Tom was especially sensitive because it was still a _new_ car, although anything over a month old really didn’t qualify as new in Russell’s opinion.

 

It was a beautiful Sunday morning, bright and early, and Saturday had been just as lovely. They’d spent Saturday afternoon with Rose and Mocha in the park, teaching the puppy to fetch, and helping Rose with her handstands. All the kids in her grade were now vying for entry into the gymnastics program that the community center was running. But there were a limited number of spaces free. Rose was determined to claim one of those spaces. Although her handstands were still a bit sloppy, she’d been adamant about moving onto cartwheels next. She had all the energy of a seven-year-old, but the ambitiousness of a high school student.

 

As they were walking across the parking lot, a couple around Tom and Russell’s age were coming up in the opposite direction. They were both dressed in sweatpants and t-shirts and looked like the type of people who enjoyed staying indoors to watch TV rather than exercising. The man was a little shorter than the woman, with a receding hairline and kind dark eyes, while the woman had her hair done up in a bun and was wearing a pair of prescription glasses over her brown eyes. Even in a pair of faded blue jeans and a simple green t-shirt, Tom was easily recognizable from a distance. Although Russell wasn’t familiar with the couple, they apparently knew Tom because they changed directions in order to greet him. And that’s when the trouble started.

 

The couple was only a few feet away when Mocha suddenly went berserk, barking and snarling, and pulling viciously on his leash. Rose didn’t have a hope in hell of holding him back. If it hadn’t been for Tom’s quick reflexes, their cute fluffy puppy might have ripped up the woman’s ankles in his rage. “Mocha!” Tom scolded, gripping the leash tightly and trying to correct the puppy’s behavior with a firm tug here and there. “Mr. and Mrs. Carlton,” he greeted nervously, visibly embarrassed over Mocha’s outburst. Because Mocha was Tom’s puppy, not Russell’s, and not Rose’s. As adorable as Mocha was, no one but Tom could control him. He had the tendency to go from cute, stuffed animal mode, to ferocious lion mode in the blink of an eye.

 

“Sheriff Underlay, is this your daughter? She’s so cute,” Mr. Carlton said when he was within hand-shaking distance. He laughed when Rose hid behind Tom, peering around him to get a good look at her. She was a beautiful little girl with long brown hair and big dark brown eyes and was always attracting positive attention.

 

“Yes, this is Rose. Say hello to Mr. Carlton, Rosie.”

 

Russell smiled when Tom didn’t correct Mr. Carlton to say that Rose was actually his step-daughter. Tom loved her just as much as he did his biological daughter, Kira, which made Russell really happy.

 

Rose stubbornly refused to come out from behind Tom, choosing to grab onto his jeans to try to pull him away from the Carltons. “Rose, come here.” Russell picked his little girl up and swung her around, causing her to laugh and giggle.

 

“Mrs. Carlton, how is business down at your nail salon?” Tom asked pleasantly, always trying to include everyone in the conversation.

 

Mrs. Carlton eyed the puppy that was growling at her and made eye contact with Tom, her true emotions revealed in that ten-second condescending glare that she gave him. “It’s fine, Tom. And how are you _adjusting_ to your new relationship?”

 

It wasn’t just the look that she gave Tom, it was also her tone of voice that set off warning bells in Russell’s head. She reminded him of the girl at the deli who had wished for Tom’s death. There was just something about her that said that she was more than capable of hurting Tom if she wanted to. And that was Russell’s cue to intervene. Putting Rose back down onto her feet, Russell came up behind Tom to wrap a protective arm around him, and met Mrs. Carlton’s glare with one of his own. “We’re doing fine, thanks for asking,” he said curtly. When Tom was on-duty, he could pretend to be as tough as he needed to be, but when he was off-duty, Russell took it upon himself to defend and protect him. Because Tom didn’t seem to be willing to stand up for himself most of the time.

 

“ _Martha!”_ Mr. Carlton hissed, grabbing his wife’s arm and giving it a good squeeze to bring her back to her senses. “Well, it was nice seeing you Sheriff,” he said awkwardly, pulling his wife back towards their parked car.

 

“You too, Mr. Carlton,” Tom said politely.

 

But as soon as the Carltons were halfway across the parking lot, Russell realized that Tom was trembling against him and his eyes were awfully red. “Tom, are you okay?”

 

Instead of answering, Tom removed his dark Ray-bans from his right breast pocket and put them on, and then took the car keys from Russell’s hand. “I’m going to sit in the car and wait for you with Mocha,” he said unemotionally, moving in the opposite direction as the Carltons had.

 

Russell placed a hand on Tom’s shoulder to stop him, trying to make it look casual so that he wouldn’t worry Rose. “You can’t let her get to you. She’s just one of those nasty hybrid haters. It’s nothing personal.” But Tom wouldn’t listen. Russell was shocked when Tom brushed off his hand and led Mocha back to the SUV.

 

“Daddy, why is Daddy-Tom going back to the car?” Rose asked in confusion. “Aren’t we going to buy waffles and ice cream?”

 

For a moment, Russell stood there watching Tom open the rear door of the vehicle, before he disappeared inside with Mocha, slamming the door behind him. Something wasn’t right. The shopping would have to wait. “Sorry, honey, but Daddy-Tom isn’t feeling well. I think that maybe we should get the waffles and ice cream later.”

 

Proving to be the most understanding child ever, Rose simply nodded and followed Russell back to the car. “Maybe Daddy-Tom doesn’t like ice cream,” she speculated. “Maybe cupcakes would be better for him.”

 

“Maybe…” Russell said distractedly. When they were back at the car, Russell let Rose into the front passenger’s seat while he climbed into the back with Tom. “Tom…” Russell began, tentatively eyeing his fiancé who was leaning against the opposite door, his lean frame incredibly tense and shivering. And his sunglasses were fogged up, doing very little to hide the tears that were streaming down his cheeks. Mocha was in his lap, whining pitifully, and Tom was just holding onto him for dear life. So that’s why Tom had headed straight for the backseat, to hide behind the protection of the tinted windows. Leaning over the front seat, Russell tapped Rose on the shoulder. “Why don’t you put on some music? You can listen to your favorite CD.”

 

“Really?” Growing excited, Rose located her CD in the glove compartment, opened it up and shoved the Disney compilation into the CD drive. The car immediately filled with the sounds of _The Little Mermaid_ singing about how she longed to live in the world of two-legged people.

 

The overbearingly cheerful music was all the distraction Russell needed to pull Tom into his arms and attempt to comfort him as he cried. While he had seen Tom occasionally get choked up over the cruel way he was treated by some of the hateful townsfolk, Russell had only witnessed him cry once. But it had been over something far more serious than a dirty look and a very subtle jab at Tom’s sexual orientation. “Take these off,” he said in mild annoyance when Tom’s sunglasses scratched against his neck. He pulled them off and put them on the seat beside him to get a good look at what he was dealing with. Tom looked more than a little upset, he looked completely distraught and emotionally wounded. “Tom, honey, what’s wrong?” Russell embraced him tighter, ignoring the puppy that was between them, chomping at his t-shirt. He expected Tom to tell him that Mrs. Carlton had struck a nerve with him, or that he was under considerable pressure at work and that comment had pushed him over. But the answer that he got was even more troubling.

 

“I don’t know,” Tom sobbed, hugging Russell in the attempt to get closer to him. To get more comfort from him. “I just feel so… depressed.”

 

 _Shit._ Russell gently stroked Tom’s hair and took a deep breath. Although his fiancé had been a bit moody lately, and just a tad listless, Russell had never suspected that Tom might be suffering from clinical depression. He’d been fine nearly two weeks ago, when they’d had the most amazing sex in that pond down in the Glades. But recently, Tom just didn’t seem to have the energy for making love, or for driving to the supermarket in the morning. And he was always complaining of being cold, despite the fact that the weather was really beginning to warm up in preparation for the summer. Maybe that’s also why Mocha was acting up. Animals could sense human emotions and the puppy was probably just being overprotective of Tom because he was feeling down.

 

Could Tom have depression? Russell had a fair bit of medical knowledge thanks to the time that he had spent with Mariel, as well as from the research that he’d done for his own occupation. From what he understood, Tom couldn’t have just developed depression out of the blue. There had to be a reason for it, a trigger, or a series of events. But sudden changes in body temperature were related to depression, as well as the mood swings and lack of energy. Tom was exhibiting all the classic symptoms of depression, but without any known cause. Although his stress levels had been unreasonably high before they’d gotten together, the emotional support that Russell had provided him with had brought those levels back down again. There was one factor that made diagnosing Tom’s condition very difficult, and that was his hybrid physiology. There was still so much that they didn’t know about hybrids, both physically and psychologically.

 

“When did you start feeling this way?” Russell asked, trying to pinpoint when Tom’s moods had begun to change. If he could work his way backwards, perhaps he could determine a pattern, and maybe from there, a logical explanation.

 

“The last few days… maybe… I don’t know.”

 

It wasn’t like Tom to be so imprecise and awkward with expressing factual details. Tom knew at exactly what time the rooster down at Farmer Bill’s livestock ranch crowed in the morning, and how many minutes it took Father Scanlon to complete his evening sermons – although Tom was keeping a particularly close eye on the priest for understandable reasons. He always put the clocks ahead – or behind - a day before they went into daylight savings, and didn’t have one overdue bill on his credit card record. If Tom wanted to be secretive, he chose to be vague and mysterious, but not like this. Not without a reason. To Russell’s ears, Tom sounded genuinely confused and fearful, as if he had no idea what was going on. “Is it only the depression?”

 

“Isn’t that bad enough?” Tom fired back, now sounding uncharacteristically irritated despite how patient Russell was being with him.

 

“Okay, calm down. Of course it’s bad enough,” Russell said soothingly, not wanting to antagonize his fiancé when he was acting all upset and unpredictable. “I just wanted to know if you’re still feeling cold… or lethargic.”

 

Before Russell could get an answer out of Tom, Mocha began to growl again, springing to his feet on Tom’s lap and pointing forward with his muzzle in the air and his ears flattened back against his head, as if he were preparing to attack. His normally gentle brown eyes were fixed on a spot behind Russell, unmoving and unblinking. But now his eyes were filled with warning and hatred, and his lips were pulled back from his teeth, exposing his sharp fangs and healthy pink gums.

 

“Tom, can you call off your puppy?”

 

“Why should I?” Tom asked miserably. “Deputy Nelson is a petty bully who could do with a few lacerations to his shins.”

 

Tom had _not_ just said that! Tom was the kindest, most forgiving, and understanding man that Russell knew. For him to be willing to set Mocha loose on someone to _lacerate their shins_ meant that he was really not feeling – or acting – like himself. Regardless of how strange Tom was behaving, Russell glanced out the window to get a good look at Deputy Nelson, but did not release Tom from his embrace. Like Tom, Nelson was off-duty and had come down to the supermarket to do some grocery shopping. He wasn’t with anyone so Russell had to assume that he was either single, or lousy company. The man didn’t look especially threatening or repugnant. He looked like an average Miami Marlins baseball fan, all decked out in his authentic new era MLB black cap and matching t-shirt. While Mocha was going nuts snarling and snapping his jaws at the deputy, Nelson was calmly stowing his groceries in the back trunk of his yellow Volkswagen Beetle, seeming to be in no great hurry to pack things up and be on his way. He either couldn’t hear Mocha barking through the tight seal of the car door, or he was choosing to ignore it. It was a good thing too, because at the rate Tom’s puppy was making enemies, Russell surmised that he would have more than Tom himself by the end of the month.

 

“Has Nelson done something to warrant your desire to sic Mocha on him?” Russell asked carefully. Looks could be deceiving. Baseball fan or not, if Nelson had hurt Tom in any way, Russell was going to get out of the car to kick him in the shins, never mind Mocha.

 

In the background, the Little Mermaid’s singing was replaced by the spiritually woodsy melody of Pocahontas, buying Russell and Tom a little more private time together since Rose liked to enthusiastically sing along to all her favorite Disney princess tunes.

 

“You’ve been falling behind on your Homestead gossip,” Tom said with a heartfelt sigh. “Nelson is the new contender for sheriff this season.”

 

“Since when has the competition ever worried you? Tom, you’ve been voted in as Homestead’s sheriff for nine years in a row. Why are you so worried about _that_ pot-bellied old man?” Usually, Russell would try to be less rude, but the man did look significantly older than Tom, and in slightly poor physical shape. The only intimidating thing about him was his reddish hair that was cropped close to his head – military style – and his outdated mustache. Rose tended to distrust men with mustaches, not that Russell had anything to do with that.

 

“The competition has never played on my sexual orientation, or the fact that I’m _not human_ before,” Tom said bitterly, the last part sounding like he was quoting what someone had said to him – or behind his back. “You don’t know what it’s like to go into the office and be forced to listen to all these _gay_ jokes in the lunchroom. Or to be physically assaulted in the locker room when someone accuses you of looking at them a certain way.”

 

“ _What?!”_ Before Russell could even begin to make sense of what Tom had just said, his hand was already on the door handle, his temper simmering very close to the boiling point. “Why the _hell_ didn’t you tell me any of this before?”

 

“Russ,” Tom grabbed Russell’s wrist in a panic, as if just realizing the explosives he had armed.

 

“That’s _unbelievable!”_ Russell half laughed in a crazy, furious sort of way. “That man out there is harassing and _assaulting_ you, despite the fact that you’re the sheriff. And you didn’t tell me because he threatened you?!”

 

“No! I didn’t tell you because I knew you would do something rash and foolish, like attack him in the middle of the parking lot without provocation.”

 

If Tom hadn’t been holding Russell back, he probably would’ve been out the door and smashing Nelson’s head against the pavement without so much as a second thought. He tried to break Tom’s grip, but couldn’t manage to do so gently, so he sat there seething with fury instead. “You should’ve told me about this sooner,” Russell said through his gritted teeth, pulling Tom back into his arms. “It’s not your job to silently take all this abuse. And you can’t expect me to pretend not to know about this now. You don’t want me jumping this guy in the parking lot? Fine! But don’t think that I won’t punch his lights out when I do get into a situation where he _provokes_ me. I’m not going to let some _pot-bellied_ asshole push around my fiancé behind my back. Either verbally or physically.” And now he had the trigger for Tom’s depression. Workplace harassment and discrimination. There were laws against such things and Russell was going to make it his business to familiarize himself with all of them.

 

“Daddy,” Rose called from the front seat during a lull between tracks. “You just said the “A” word.”

 

“Yes, I did. You caught me,” Russell admitted guiltily. He heard the engine of the Volkswagen start up beside them and turned to glare murderously at it as it pulled out of the parking spot and drove off. Fuck the law! He wasn’t going to stand for anyone hurting Tom. Nelson was going to get a serious beat down the next time Russell ran into him, which would make him think twice before he harassed or assaulted Tom again.

 

“You told me never to use the “A” word, Daddy.”

 

“And I’m still telling you never to use it.” Russell reached down to pat Mocha on the head when the puppy began to chew on one of the belt loops on his jeans. Once again, Tom’s puppy was all tame and obedient, except for the mauling of a perfectly good pair of designer jeans. “When we get home, we’re going to have a very long discussion about what’s going on in your workplace,” Russell said quietly to Tom. “And if I don’t like what I hear, I can guarantee you that I’ll be knocking on that fucker Nelson’s door – _tonight_.”

 

“Daddy! The “F” word is worse than the “A” word,” Rose gasped in shock.

 

“Russ, watch your language in front of Rose, please,” Tom pleaded, refusing to acknowledge that he had just shed the light on a very disturbing problem.

 

“If you don’t want her to hear all the expletives under the rainbow, then you’d better turn off your walkie-talkie in the kitchen in the morning,” Russell countered, letting Tom get away with changing the subject, but having no intention of permanently dropping it.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day was a Monday. Tom had always felt indifferent about Mondays, until Nelson had formed his childish group of anti-hybrid / homophobic bullies. And it wasn’t as if Nelson had just suddenly transferred in from another county, having brought his prejudiced nature and vile opinions with him. Actually, Nelson had been with the Homestead Sheriff’s Department for the past fifteen years, which was much longer than Tom’s history with the department. But in all that time, Nelson had never expressed any particular dislike of Tom, nor had he ever indicated that he was ambitious enough to vie for the position of sheriff. He’d apparently had a change of heart after he’d learnt that a) Tom was a hybrid, and b) Tom was in a relationship with another man. That’s when the animosity and the bullying had started.

 

At first, there had only been the occasional article clipping containing homosexual topics left on Tom’s desk. But that had soon escalated to his email filling up with anonymous hate mail from someone who was violently opposed to both hybrids and homosexuals. And after that, Nelson had begun to corner him with accusations of him having some sort of hybrid _secret agenda_ , or giving the department a bad name with his promiscuous activities. Because he fit the stereotype of a promiscuous gay man _so well_.

 

During his serious talk with Russell last night, Tom had made it perfectly clear that he had thrown the first punch in his ongoing feud with Nelson. That crack about him sleeping with one of the local drug addicts had set him off like nothing else could. He let most things slide to avoid getting into confrontations, but to have his reputation tarnished like that… Oh, he’d let Nelson have it alright. Punched him right in the mouth, hard enough to split open his lip and send him to the dentist to have his cracked veneers repaired. And that should have been the end of it. But Nelson was not a man who liked to be bested, so the next day he had cornered Tom in the locker room with two of his buddies. Tom had been lucky to escape from that with mainly bruises on his arms from blocking their punches, and a sore back from being slammed into his locker. But the next day it had happened again, along with homophobic slurs added in with the punches to injure him emotionally as well as physically. He hadn’t told Russell because… well, for one thing, he believed that whatever happened in the workplace was his responsibility to bear. And for another, he didn’t want Russell going after Nelson and being ambushed by a gang of deputies instead. Just the thought of Russell being jumped by a bunch of armed men terrified Tom.

 

After the fourth day, he had stopped using the locker room to store his gear, choosing to keep his jacket, ammo, and other personal effects in the trunk of his cruiser instead. Anything to avoid encountering those hoodlum deputies who thought that they were above the law.

 

And for the past few days, Tom had been trying extra hard to steer clear of anyone associated with Nelson entirely. He wasn’t feeling up to either a battle of wits, or a physical altercation. Plus, he was still depressed and he really had no idea why. Was Nelson and his gang getting to him? More than he wanted to let on. But was that the cause of his depression and the constant fogginess he felt obstructing his ability to think clearly? He wasn’t so sure. He knew that he should do something sensible like lock Nelson up and charge him for his crimes, but he was afraid to do so without knowing what kind of support the man had. The entire department could be rooting for him for all Tom knew, which would turn arresting him into an incendiary action.

 

“Hey, Underlay, how nice of you to finally make it into work this morning,” Nelson called out sarcastically as Tom entered the office area and went straight for his desk. Not taking kindly to being ignored, Nelson followed closely on Tom’s heels, chuckling rudely behind him. “Have you always walked with that swagger, or is it something you just started to do after you started hooking up with Varon?”

 

Tom gritted his teeth and whirled on Nelson, speaking to him in a tone fit for addressing lowlife serial killers. “Get the _hell_ out of my personal space, Deputy, before I remove you by force.” He wasn’t in the mood for this today, especially not after Russell had promised him in no uncertain terms that he was going to _beat the shit out of_ Nelson before the end of the week. Russell had not broken a single promise to him in all the time they’d been together, so now he had a serious problem on his hands. What was he going to do if Russell got himself arrested, or sent to the emergency room with life threatening injuries? Tom had to do something about Nelson – and fast – before Russell did something _to_ him.

 

“I’d like to see you try it,” Nelson snickered. “A pansy like you moving a real man like me.”

 

On any regular day, Tom wouldn’t have been afraid to reprimand his underling, but today – on some instinctual level – he found himself resisting the urge to engage Nelson in any form of combat, choosing to turn to ignore him, like he had done for the previous twelve days. It wasn’t a rational decision because he was jeopardizing his position by rolling over and playing dead every time Nelson tried to get a rise out of him. But something deep inside of him sensed that if he did start a fight with Nelson, he would be the one who ended up getting hurt.

 

“Your nine-year winning streak is over, Underlay. This year, I’m going to be the one who gets voted in as sheriff. And the first thing I’m going to do as sheriff is see you kicked out of here in disgrace.”

 

“Go and _fuck yourself!”_ Tom hissed under his breath, fancying that he probably sounded a bit like Russell with the easy way that the word _fuck_ just rolled off of his tongue.

 

“What did you say to me?!”

 

Tom was prepared for the hand that forcefully gripped his shoulder, snatching it with his opposite hand and twisting to get it off of him. But he didn’t see the other attack coming until it was too late. Nelson planted one of his dry, wrinkled hands on Tom’s chest and shoved him – hard. Perhaps if Tom had been a bit more alert, or acted more aggressively instead of defensively, he might have been able to retaliate. At the very least, he may have been able to keep his balance. But he was tired and groggy, and had a million other things on his mind, not being able to do anything to stop his fall. As luck would have it, he fell in the most ungraceful manner possible – on his backside. The force of the rough, carpeted floor impacting with his tailbone was not only uncomfortable, but it was also embarrassing. There were only two other deputies in the building, but both of them had borne witness to Tom’s undignified fall, making the incident even more unbearable.

 

“You stupid…” Tom was about to get up to show Nelson what kind of damage a much younger and healthier man was capable of inflicting when he felt _it._ His tailbone was awfully sore, and he was beginning to get cramping in his lower abdomen from the fall, but that was not concerned him. What concerned him was the feeling of dampness between his legs, much like what he had felt back at the pond with Russell a bit under two weeks ago. His body couldn’t possibly have interpreted his physical injury as anything sexual, so why was it exhibiting signs of lubrication again? He had to get to the washroom to try and stop it before it got any worse.

 

“That’s the position you ought to stay in, on your knees,” Nelson sneered as Tom struggled to get back to his feet.

 

“HEY! Back off!” Before Nelson could shove Tom again, Deputy Lewis Sirk grabbed him by the forearm and angrily yanked him out of range. “Do you know what the punishment is for assaulting a superior officer?” Lewis might only have the one right arm to function with, but that one arm was unbelievably powerful. Perhaps part of the reason was psychological, or overcompensation, but whatever the reason, Lewis had no trouble restraining the bigger man with the one arm alone.

 

As much as Tom wanted to thank Lewis for interfering, he felt pressured to get out of there as quickly as humanly possible. That wet feeling was just getting worse, as were the abdominal cramps, which led him to believe that the fall had triggered something inside of him that he didn’t understand. Getting up was surprisingly difficult with the amount of pain he was in, but he forced himself onto his feet and fled in the direction of the restroom as quickly as he was able.

 

“Sheriff, are you alright?” Lewis asked, trailing off when Tom just left him standing there with Nelson.

 

Heedless of the way the other two officers were staring at him, Tom tore past the rows of desks until he got to a narrow corridor at the end of the room where the restrooms, a water fountain, and the bulletin board were situated.   Much to Tom’s relief, the restrooms in the office were private. There were only two – one designated for men, and the other for women. He was often chastising the men for going into the ladies room when nobody else was around because the only female employee that worked for the department was the receptionist. That was no excuse for violating office protocols in Tom’s opinion. The men’s room was for the men, and the ladies for the women. But when he got to the men’s room and found it occupied, he had no choice but to opt for using the ladies room. And hope that nobody would notice his hypocritical act.

 

Locking the door securely behind him, Tom quickly surveyed the small restroom for what he needed. The ladies room was the same size and configuration as the men’s, but happened to be a heck of a lot cleaner. There was an adequate supply of soap in the soap dispenser, the toilet seat was down – as it should be – and the toilet paper was still tightly rolled up and not dragging on the floor. If Tom hadn’t been in dire need of that toilet roll, he would’ve left it neatly hanging as he found it, instead of pulling it off of its dispenser and winding up a good portion in his hand. He undid his pants with his other hand and hastily pushed them, along with his briefs, down his legs, while leaning back against the wall. He didn’t have time for this. There was a stack of paperwork sitting on his desk waiting for him to go through and the longer he put it off, the more overtime he would be stuck doing at the end of the day.

 

“ _Inconvenient hybrid biological function,”_ he breathed in irritation, dropping the bunched-up fistful of used toilet paper into the toilet bowl without sparing it so much as a glance. Had other gay or bisexual hybrid males experienced this bizarre automatic lubricating nonsense? It was wonderful when it activated itself before the actual sex act, but in the middle of the office when he was so far from being aroused that he could temporarily claim to be asexual? Not so wonderful. And the cramps… those were something else. They were worse than food poisoning. They were like long waves of pain, building in intensity until they became sharp enough to bring tears to his eyes. _Why isn’t it stopping?_ Tom had gone through more than half of the toilet roll before he realized that the wetness he was feeling was different than it had been before. Back at the pond it had been gel-like and viscous, but now it was similar to thickened water. “ _Give me a break and stop already,”_ he muttered, turning to the toilet to flush it before he ended up choking it up. And that’s when the room spun. His vision blacked out momentarily as he felt a rushing sound in his ears, before the sensation of nausea nearly caused him to vomit.

 

When Tom’s vision cleared again, he was sprawled on the restroom floor, his heartbeat thumping maniacally in his chest, and his breath coming out in short, panicked gasps. The toilet bowl was full of _blood!_ His body wasn’t producing that lubricating substance at all. He was bleeding – internally! Afraid to see what he’d find, but needing to be absolutely sure, Tom pushed himself up off of the floor to take a look at his briefs. They were saturated with enough blood that it had gone through to stain the back of his trousers. What was wrong with his body? What was he going to do?

 

“Tom, are you alright in there?”

 

 _Lewis!_ In front of the other deputies, Lewis continued to respectfully refer to Tom as _Sheriff_ or _Sir_ , but Tom had given his daughter’s boyfriend permission to refer to him casually in less formal situations. Having a conversation through the restroom door probably qualified as one of those situations. Tom fought to keep his voice steady and called out to his deputy before the man could walk off. “Lewis! I need you to do me a favor.”

 

“Sure! What do you need?”

 

“I need you to call Russell. Ask him to come down here. _Now!_ Please.” Russell would know what to do. His fiancé had spent half his life caring for wounded and dying animals in the Glades.   How was a hybrid any different from any of those animals?

 

“Uh… okay. What should I tell him?”

 

“Tell him it’s an emergency.”

 

“Tom, did you sustain any serious injuries when Nelson attacked you? Do you need me to call you an ambulance?”

 

“ _No!_ Just Russell.” There was no way he was going to let some curious medic poke around in such a sensitive area of his body. Absolutely no way! Russell was the only person that he trusted enough to help him with this humiliating situation.

 

* * *

 

When Russell arrived at the Homestead Sheriff’s Department, he was so upset that he almost forgot to remove the car keys from the ignition of his company truck. He’d been out in the marshes when Lewis had called him and the reception had been shit, but he’d heard all that he’d needed to in the first twenty-five seconds of the call. Nelson had attacked Tom and now Tom was hiding in the restroom with an injury that he wouldn’t describe to Lewis.

 

As soon as Russell entered the office area, he targeted the head with the red military haircut, going straight for Nelson’s desk with his fists clenched and his anger making his head pound. “Stand up you _son-of-a-bitch!!_ He ordered Nelson coldly as soon as he was within punching distance.

 

“Are you serious, Varon? Have you come to threaten me for tapping your lover on the chest?” Nelson laughed as he stood up, supposedly to humor Russell.

 

“I should’ve taken care of you in the parking lot yesterday,” Russell snarled as he punched Nelson straight in the nose, breaking it on the first try. When Nelson fell back to clutch at his nose that was gushing blood, he frantically looked directly to the right of his desk where two other men were sitting. But one look from Russell, who was known for his legendary temper and his past criminal record, kept them both in their seats. “That’s the problem with bullies, their powerful posse disperses as soon as the bully himself is pounded on. And without his posse, the bully becomes nothing but an old _pot-bellied_ coward!” Russell grabbed Nelson by his arm and flung him onto the floor. “Lewis, put this piece of shit into a holding cell. And take your time calling a medic for him.”

 

“With pleasure.”

 

Leaving Lewis to take care of Nelson, Russell rushed to the back of the office where he found the ladies restroom. Rapping firmly on the door, he leaned in close and spoke urgently to Tom. “Tom, it’s me. Let me in.” There was a bit of a pause, but then the lock clicked, permitting Russell to enter. He turned the doorknob and cautiously pushed the door open, slipped inside, and closed and locked it behind him again. “Tom, you scared the hell out of me. What is the _emergency?”_ On any given day, Russell would voluntarily drop everything in favor of taking care of Tom, but to use the word _emergency_ was quite serious. “Tom?” Russell looked over to where Tom was sitting on the closed lid of the toilet seat. His pants were up but undone and he was hunched over with both arms wrapped around his abdomen as if he were in pain. His face was also deathly pale and he was shivering. “Where are you hurt?” Russell asked gently, struggling to remain calm when all his instincts were screaming at him that Tom was injured badly. He crouched down in front of Tom and covered the hybrid’s hands with his own, checking for any visible cuts or bruises. There weren’t any injuries that he could see and Tom wouldn’t move his arms away from his abdomen, so Russell had to assume that he wasn’t dealing with anything superficial. “Tom, honey, talk to me. Where are you hurt?” Russell repeated.

 

“I’m bleeding,” Tom whispered dryly, speaking so quietly that Russell had to strain his ears to hear him.

 

“Where?” What the hell had Nelson done to him? Tom was in shock and barely responsive. He was also cold to the touch and wouldn’t stop shivering, even when Russell hugged him close to try and warm him up. “Tom, where are you bleeding?”   He repeated.

 

“Somewhere I shouldn’t be.”

 

Russell’s eyes widened and he backed off to take in the state of Tom’s pants. He couldn’t possibly mean…? Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Russell took hold of Tom’s pants and looked at him carefully. “I’m just going to take a look, okay?” When Tom nodded weakly, Russell slid his other hand underneath Tom to work the pants off, but stopped. He didn’t need to get Tom’s pants off to know what the problem was, or the severity of his fiancé’s injury. Tom’s trousers were completely soaked through in one spot, and when Russell pulled his hand away, all he saw was blood. “ _Tom_ …” Russell swallowed hard, forcing the tears from his eyes as he cut off his emotions in order to act in a calm and efficient manner. He had to get Tom to the emergency room – _immediately_! Pulling Tom’s trousers back on properly, Russell did them up and then shrugged out of his short-sleeved sage-green ranger shirt. He wrapped it around Tom’s waist and tucked it into his trousers to cover the obvious blood stain at the back of Tom’s pants. “Tom, I’m taking you to the hospital. Can you walk if I help you?”

 

“Maybe…” Again, Tom’s voice was faint and his blue eyes unfocused, his ability to concentrate affected by the dramatic blood loss.

 

“Put your arm around me.” Russell wrapped his arm around Tom’s waist, lifted him up off of the toilet seat, and half carried him to the door. When his fiancé moaned in agony, Russell’s expression tightened with dread. “My truck is parked out front. You just have to make it that far.” But Tom’s legs gave out on him when they were out in the hallway, causing Russell to bend down to get his other arm under Tom’s knees so that he could lift him off of the ground. Lewis was standing in the corridor looking sick with worry at witnessing his superior – and the father of his girlfriend – collapse like that in front of him. “I can’t carry him through the office like this,” Russell hissed. “Get Tom’s cruiser and bring it around to the back.”

 

“Okay. Give me two minutes.”

 

Once Lewis had disappeared into the front office area, Russell quickly carried Tom back through the lunchroom, grateful that it was too early for anyone to actually be eating or on a coffee break. Pushing open the back door, he hurried down the stairs and to the sheriff’s cruiser that was waiting at the bottom of them. Lewis got out to open the rear door and then moved out of the way so that Russell could lay Tom down on the backseat. Russell made sure that Tom was lying on his side and then took the blanket that Lewis passed to him to bundle his hybrid up tightly in it. “Hold on a little longer, Tom,” he pleaded, bending down to kiss his fiancé on the cheek. But Tom was now completely unresponsive, which just pushed Russell that much closer to a state of panic. Closing the rear door, he jumped into the driver’s seat, slammed the door and pulled on his seatbelt.

 

“I’d better go with you in case someone asks why you’re driving the sheriff’s car,” Lewis advised.

 

“Get in.” Russell activated the sirens and sped out of the parking lot, speed-dialing Mariel on his cell phone as soon as he hit the main road.


	4. Chapter 4

“Are you sure he wasn’t punched in the abdomen?” Mariel asked for the second time as Russell finished getting the hospital gown on Tom but kept him on his side because that position seemed to cause him the least amount of pain.

 

“Lewis said that Nelson just shoved him. Falling down like that couldn’t have caused this amount of blood loss,” Russell said helplessly, backing away from the examination bed to let Mariel do her job. At Russell’s request, she had kept everyone else out of the examination room due to the sensitive nature of Tom’s injury. So if she required any assistance, Russell would be the one offering to provide it.

 

“No, it couldn’t have. But the bleeding seems to have slowed down since you brought him in, which is a good sign. Remember that Tom has shown signs of accelerated healing in the past. Maybe his body is beginning to heal whatever damage was caused in the fall.” Mariel wheeled the ultrasound machine closer to the bed and picked up the squeeze bottle of gel. “I’m going to need him on his back with the gown out of the way. Keep the sheets just below his hips.”

 

Russell did as he was instructed, feeling bad when Tom made a pained noise. He obviously felt the most discomfort on his back, but neither Russell nor Mariel had any clue why. The freezing cold gel got another negative reaction out of Tom as soon as it was applied to his abdomen. Although he’d fainted in the car, he was still capable of letting them know what hurt and how much. “How long is this going to take?”

 

“That depends on what I find,” Mariel answered vaguely. “It could take ten minutes… or more than thirty. I’m going to check for intestinal damage, inflammation of the stomach lining, basically whatever I’m able to look for in an ultrasound.”

 

“Neither of those could cause such significant bleeding,” Russell protested.

 

“Trust me, it’s much better for me to start off with an ultrasound and hope to find the cause of the bleeding rather than to put Tom through an endoscopic examination.”

 

That was an understatement! Russell hoped that it wouldn’t come to that. Standing close so that he could hold Tom’s hand, but staying out of Mariel’s way, he watched as she spread the gel over the hybrid’s abdomen with the scan head and kept a close eye on the monitor. The first few passes revealed no abnormalities. Russell was pretty keen on the human anatomy so he had no trouble following the images that were being projected onto the monitor beside Mariel. Mariel moved the instrument over Tom’s abdomen at an incredibly slow speed, pausing and changing angles every so often to ensure that the examination would be as thorough as possible. It wasn’t until they were about five minutes into the examination that her hand came to a dead stop in a position about halfway up his abdomen.

 

“What the hell is _that?”_ Russell demanded to know, unable to keep the fear and bewilderment out of his voice.

 

“I think that it’s pretty self-explanatory,” Mariel replied in a hushed voice that sounded just as baffled as Russell’s had.

 

“That isn’t possible!” Russell gripped Tom’s hand tighter and dragged his other hand worriedly over his face. “Could the military have done this to him? Last year when he was held for questioning, could they have implanted this _thing_ in him?!”

 

“Even the military isn’t capable of this kind of sophisticated operation, Russell. Judging by the looks of things, the womb is fully integrated in Tom’s body. But _here_ , at the entrance, it looks like it sustained some sort of damage. It’s possible that along _this_ line, there might have been some sort of protective barrier in place. And if so, it’s safe to assume that that barrier was what ruptured and caused Tom to start bleeding when he fell.” Even in the face of the unknown, Mariel continued to act as professional as she always did. They had experienced so many scientifically impossible events last year that it now took a whole lot more to truly shock them.

 

“But wouldn’t you have detected this last year when you needed to operate on him for those three gunshot wounds? They were in the same general location.” The whole incident with Father Scanlon shooting Tom in the back had been traumatic for everyone, especially Russell who had been harboring secret feelings for him at the time. He knew exactly where his hybrid had been shot and the lengthy procedure that had been required to remove the bullets and stitch him up. How could the womb have gone undetected at that time, as well as undamaged?

 

“We didn’t detect anything of the sort,” Mariel said firmly, returning to her examination. “But we both know that the physiological structure of a hybrid can adapt to different environments and spontaneously produce organs that hadn’t previously been there.”

 

“Yeah, in _women_ ,” Russell emphasized. “You’ve had no cases of similar developments in men, have you?”

 

“No.”

 

Russell turned his attention to the monitors that were keeping track of Tom’s heart rate, becoming more alarmed when he noticed that it was steadily dropping. “Mariel!” He said sharply, pointing to the monitor in question. “If the bleeding has almost stopped, why is his heart rate continuing to drop? Does he need a transfusion?”

 

“It isn’t just his heart rate. His core body temperature is also dangerously low and… _Oh my God_ …”

 

“Now what?”

 

“There are signs of fetal development in _this_ area.”

 

If Russell hadn’t been leaning onto the bed to stroke Tom’s hair, he might have crashed onto the floor when he heard that bit of information. Forcing himself to go along with what he was being told instead of resisting the plausibility of it, Russell blurted out his paranoid question without thinking. “Like Christina?”

 

“No. Not like Christina. She, along with those other hybrid women, had multiple fetuses. As far as I can tell, Tom only has one, and it appears to be human… or at least humanoid.”

 

“Can you tell how old it is?”

 

“They’re just indications, Russell. There is activity hinting at a fetus but nothing that I can pinpoint with the ultrasound. It’s still in the early formation stage, so I’d guess that you’re looking at about two weeks or so…”

 

 _Two weeks!_ Suddenly, the wild and amorous afternoon that he’d spent with Tom in that pond came back to him, along with answers to a dozen other questions. “Get him unhooked from all this crap. I need to get him out of here, now!”

 

“Where are you going to take him?” Mariel asked in alarm.

 

“Back to the place where this all started!” Two weeks ago Tom had been in heat, as bizarre as that might sound, and probably fertile. The hybrid had been drawn to the pond, as many other hybrids were attracted to bodies of water, and had gone there to either get through his time of heat, or to mate. Not only had Tom been acting strange at the time, but he’d also been giving off some pretty strong pheromones that Russell had just passed off as the hybrid’s usual pleasant scent. But the way he’d tasted, and the intense warmth that he’d been giving off had to have been instinctive ways of signaling to his mate that he was ready to be impregnated. Not that Tom would have been consciously aware of what he’d been trying to accomplish at the time. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that Russell had found himself on that path that day. The bond between a hybrid and his mate had to be much stronger than anyone was aware of for Tom to have lured him to such an isolated spot over that kind of distance with pheromones alone. On that day, Tom had claimed to be hot, but the water had cooled him down. If the water was capable of regulating a hybrid’s body temperature, it might be able to warm him up if he were feeling cold.

 

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing? If you take him out of here and he crashes…”

 

“It’s the same as it was with those pregnant hybrid women,” Russell explained as he frantically helped Mariel unhook Tom from the monitors. “He needs to be in the water. Some animals have a specific spot where they go to mate or to heal their wounds, and I think that Tom may have inadvertently created one on his own. I’ll explain later.” Russell lifted Tom off of the bed and rushed out to where Lewis was waiting. “Lewis, I’m taking the cruiser. If there’s any way you can keep the other deputies off of my ass until I can get into the Glades…”

 

“I’ll see what I can do.”

* * *

 

Russell got them to the pond in record time, throwing the car into park and turning off the engine. He then rushed to the back and lifted Tom out, still dressed in the hospital gown that was now stained with blood. “We’re here, Tom. Back to your favorite pond,” he breathed heavily as he strode into the water with Tom in his arms. There wasn’t time for him to undress or worry about him drowning his shoes, not when he could barely find a pulse on his freezing cold hybrid. What had made Tom choose this pond of all places to claim as his mating grounds and personal territory? Russell was an expert on animal behavior but not hybrid behavior. Maybe Tom liked it because it was warm and cozy. Or maybe he felt attached to the turtles that Russell had dumped in it. The reason was no longer important. What was important was Russell’s theory being proven correct. “It’s really warm in here,” he said with mock enthusiasm as he waded in deep enough so that he could lower Tom into the water. He kept the hybrid’s head above the water but made sure that the rest of him was submerged in it. “The sun warmed the water up for you. And look, there goes a turtle.”

 

Tom didn’t react to Russell’s observations or the turtle, and he didn’t seem to be getting any warmer either.

 

“I took a huge risk by bringing you here,” Russell said shakily as his brown eyes filled with tears. “Don’t prove my instincts wrong… please…” Embracing Tom close, Russell buried his face in the hybrid’s shoulder and inhaled his sweet, familiar scent. But he had difficulty finding comfort in it when his forearms were still covered in Tom’s blood, which he hadn’t had the time to wash off. Given the nature of Tom’s occupation, Russell had always dreaded that he might get a phone call one day telling him that Tom had been shot in the line of duty. Maybe grazed with a bullet or injured in a scuffle with one of the drug dealers down by the docks. Because Homestead wasn’t as violent as the big cities where officers got gunned down on the streets or ambushed during a raid. But he’d never imagined that he would be called down to Tom’s place of employment to carry him off to the emergency room after he’d been injured in a simple fall. A fluke accident that had hurt him badly internally.

 

Russell stood there for maybe close to an hour just holding onto Tom before he heard a sigh near his ear. “Tom?”

 

“Russ… where am I?” Tom whispered, too weak to lift his head off of Russell’s chest to survey his surroundings.

 

Wanting to cry with joy but knowing that that would probably scare Tom, Russell kept his voice as even as possible while he pressed grateful kisses to his hybrid’s face. “You’re back at the pond. How are you feeling?” Tom now felt a lot warmer in his arms, and when Russell took his pulse, it was more distinct than it had been at the hospital.

 

“Warmer… but I still have this strange pain… _here_.” Tom took hold of Russell’s left hand and pressed it against his abdomen, not realizing the significance of his actions. “It’s better… but it still hurts.”

 

Russell gently stroked Tom’s abdomen, keeping his other arm around the hybrid to support him until he was able to stand unassisted. “When you fell, something ruptured inside of you,” he explained slowly. “That was the cause of the bleeding. Mariel performed an ultrasound..”

 

“And…?”

 

“And she found something… unusual.”

 

“What did she find?” Tom asked tiredly.

 

“Do you remember when you came here two weeks ago? You said that you were hot, and then we had the most incredible sex.” Russell rubbed his coarse cheek against Tom’s before moving off a bit to kiss him softly on the lips. “I think that you were in heat.”

 

“ _In heat_? Animals go into heat, not humans.”

 

“Honey, you aren’t entirely human,” Russell reminded his fiancé.

 

“What ruptured?” Tom asked fearfully, deciding to accept what Russell had told him as fact and not bother debating it. He didn’t have the energy to do anything other than accept it anyway.

 

“Some sort of barrier… that was protecting the entrance to your womb.”

 

“My what?” Tom pushed away from Russell so that he could stare directly into his eyes.

 

While Russell usually loved gazing into those intense blue eyes, now he found himself terrified to do so. How would Tom react to discovering that not only was he capable of carrying a child, but that he was also pregnant? Approximately two weeks pregnant. Come to think of it, Russell wondered how he felt about this terrifying – yet miraculous – turn of events. He’d never thought that he would have another child after Rose, but now here Tom was, pregnant with _his_ child. The science of it was unimportant. What mattered to Russell was that nature had found a way of bestowing the man that he loved with a very precious gift.   It was terrifying because of the unexplored scientific aspect of it, but emotionally overwhelming due to the possibilities that it offered. “This is going to be a lot to take in,” Russell warned.

 

“Just tell me what is wrong with me, Russ.”

 

“Nothing is wrong with you, Tom. It’s just that somehow… Your hybrid physiology…. You’re _pregnant_ , Tom.” There was no way he could tone that down, no matter how hard he tried. But Tom’s response was very different from the terrified denial that he expected to hear.

 

“I guess on some instinctual level, I suspected that it might be something like that because of the depression and the mood swings,” Tom said quietly. “But I didn’t believe that it was truly possible…”

 

“When did you start to suspect this?” Russell asked, trying not to sound hurt. Why wouldn’t Tom have mentioned something this earth-shattering as soon as he’d begun to suspect it? Was he back to his old habit of keeping secrets for the _greater good?_

 

“A few days ago. I didn’t want to believe it because…” Tom broke off as his eyes misted with tears. He broke eye contact with Russell and tried to blink them away with those long eyelashes of his, which would have worked if there hadn’t been more tears to replace the ones that he first shed.

 

“Why wouldn’t you come to me about this? You’re supposed to trust me enough to be able to talk to me about _anything_.”

 

“We’re supposed to be married in two weeks,” Tom choked, his words being muffled by his sobs. “What better reason is there to cancel the wedding than to find out that your male fiancé is pregnant?”

 

“Is that what you were afraid of? That I wouldn’t want to marry you if I found out?” That sounded just like Tom, always fearing what he couldn’t predict or control. “Tom, I _love_ you,” Russell said fiercely, holding Tom tightly in his arms. “I was aware that our relationship might be a bit unusual due to your hybrid physiology. I accepted that when I proposed to you. Why would I cancel the wedding after discovering that you’re carrying _my_ child?”

 

“You don’t want me to abort it?” Tom asked in disbelief.

 

“Abort it?” Sometimes Tom got the strangest ideas in his head, or maybe it was the hormones talking. “Is that what you want to do?” He asked to be sure.

 

“ _No!”_ Tom said with enough conviction to erase any doubts that Russell may have had.

 

“And neither do I. Not unless it endangers your life,” he corrected himself. “Mariel still has to run more tests to make sure that the loss of that protective barrier won’t harm you… or our baby.” Russell couldn’t help but beam with pride as he said that, already imagining what a child with their mixed genes would look like. “And you might need to periodically come down here to regulate your body temperature, or heal. And we still can’t be sure that you won’t go into heat again sometime in the near future.”

 

“I think that the whole purpose of that was to conceive a child,” Tom said sheepishly. “It shouldn’t happen again.”

  
“What about just making love?” They hadn’t done that since the afternoon of the pond and Russell was beginning to feel cranky and deprived because of it.

 

“I might feel like doing that soon. After I’m healed. I don’t feel depressed anymore.”

 

“I’m happy to hear that. But, about your pregnancy… I don’t think that you should tell anyone about it until we’re sure how people are going to react to it. Nelson is locked up, but it’s only temporary. He’s probably going to get off with a slap on the wrist, and his buddies aren’t going to be punished at all. I don’t want you anywhere near him while you’re pregnant, or better yet, I won’t feel comfortable about you going anywhere on your own from now on. You should start taking Mocha to work with you.”

 

“Mocha? My cute small puppy?” Tom asked, sounding unimpressed.

 

“He’s very protective of you, in case you haven’t noticed. And he’s growing bigger every day. In another few weeks he’ll be a force to be reckoned with, but even now he has quite a fire in him. Take him into work and start training him. You’ll see how he’ll make a very valuable addition to the department.” And hopefully maul Nelson and any other disgusting waste of flesh who had it in for Tom. The only reason Tom still saw Mocha as a cute puppy was because Mocha never growled at or showed his fangs to his beloved master.

 

“Okay, I’ll take Mocha to work with me,” Tom relented.

 

“Good.” After another few minutes, Russell tried rousing Tom from where he’d fallen asleep on his shoulder. “Are you ready to come out now?”

 

“I think I might need another hour until the pain goes away completely.”

 

“Take as long as you need.” Russell let Tom go back to sleep, extremely relieved that his fiancé was healing smoothly thanks to the synergy that he had with the water. His beautiful, _pregnant_ fiancé.


End file.
